Frying baskets are used to support food in a cooking medium which is generally a liquid medium with the food immersed therein. Usually where food is prepared or cooked by deep fat frying, a frying basket is immersed in the hot fat to the point where the food is completely covered by the fat.
With some types of food, such as pies, it is desirable that each individual food piece be disposed in a separate compartment to prevent it from sticking to the other food pieces. Shelves for providing separate compartments can be arranged vertically one on top of the other in a frying basket of this type.
In some baskets, the distance between the shelves is such that each shelf acts to prevent food from rising off of the shelf immediately below.
The basket can have three sides: a back wall and two end walls. The fourth side is left open for loading the food pieces into the compartments on each tray. After the food has been cooked, the basket can be removed from the cooking medium and the food pieces can be removed from the compartments by tipping the basket with the open side downward or by removing each food piece from each compartment individually by hand.
With some types of food, the nature of the food piece is such that it can sometimes stick to, or become wedged in, the supporting surfaces of the compartment on the food shelf. This makes removal of the food piece from that compartment difficult. Even shaking the basket with the open side facing downward may not cause all of the food pieces to fall out. Further, the food pieces may start to break apart into smaller pieces in the compartment under such shaking. If the operator trys to reach into the end of the compartment to remove the stuck or wedged food piece, the stuck food piece may break apart and just the front end of the food piece is removed. If the shelf has a depth which is greater than the length of the operator's fingers, it is very difficult for the operator to use his fingers to remove all of the broken food pieces that are sticking to the surfaces of the compartment.
Thus, it would be highly desirable if access were provided to the individual compartments on each food shelf and if such access permitted the operator, where desired, to grasp the food piece along its entire length. This would more easily enable the operator to remove the stuck food piece from the compartment without breaking the stuck food piece into smaller pieces. Further, greater access promotes self discharge of the food pieces without manually removing them individually.